Trauma amplified

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday February 23, 2011

TERRIFIED residents who experienced yesterday's devastating earthquake will experience shock for days, says a disaster expert.Associate Professor David Johnston, from the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University, on the North Island, said residents would have been getting to the point where initial shock from the earthquake in September was diminishing.However, the extent to which yesterday's earthquake would further "amplify" what they had already experienced would not be known until the full extent of the devastation became clear.He said that as the extent of the tragedy unfolded over the coming days, people would experience changing emotions as they took events in. "It takes time. At the moment they will be focused on the event at hand and their immediate survival."In addition to the immediate welfare needs of people who had suffered physical injuries, the country needed also to provide for those who had not, he said.Dominion Post